Chessbase News, Germany
Nov 29 2008

Olympiad in Dresden: Closing ceremony and prize giving

29.11.2008 ` 1,270 players took part in the event, hailing from 141
different countries. 722 men and 548 women played a total of 6,050
games. In the end Armenia and Georgia had won Gold in the men’s and
women’s sections. But there were also prizes in different Elo
categories, medals for best performances on different boards. We bring
you all the winners in this big pictorial report.

38th Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008

The Olympiad took place from November 12th to 25th, 2008, in the
Congress Hall in Dresden, Saxony, Germany. 156 teams from 152 nations
participated, with most of the top players present.

Prize Giving in Dresden
Before we come to the pictorial report on the closing ceremony and the
prize winners of the 38th Olympiad in Dresden, here are some
statistics provided to us by the organisers.

There were 2,169 participants, of which 1,270 were players, 110
arbiters, trainers and officials. They came from 141 different
countries. 722 men played in 146 teams, 548 women in 111 teams.

The total number of games played was 6,050. All of them were broadcast
live over the Internet. This required 514 sensor boards to be
connected with computers, with ten Gigabyte per second Internet
access, provided by five Blade Centers with multiple servers, and
around two hundred additional computers. A total of over 52 million
persons visited the Chess Olympiad through the Internet.

Two heads of state (Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Serzh Sargsyan), a German
cabinet minister (Wolfgang Schäuble), an Oscar winner (Artur
Brauner), a first league football trainer (Felix Magath), a boxing
world champion (Arthur Abraham) and eleven world chess champions
visited the event. 453 journalists were accredited. A total of 13,083
chess fans visited the Olympiad.

Closing ceremony (photos)

Rating category prizes

Before the start of the Olympiad the Technical Administration Panel of
FIDE divided the teams into five rating categories, on the basis of
their position in the initial overall ranking list, with each
categories contain approximately an equal numbers of teams. Every team
that finished with the highest score for its category, provided that
it has not won medals, received a prize of money or goods.

Board prizes

For these awards the players’ performance ratings were compared. Only
players who had played a minimum of eight games were eligible for
board prizes.

Winning teams of the Olympiad

The winning team in the Open Section received the "International
Hamilton-Russell Cup", the winning team in the Women’s Section the
"International Vera Menchik Cup". Both trophies are competed for at
each successive Olympiad and cannot be acquired in perpetuity. The
dates of the tournament and the name of the winning federation are
engraved on the base of the Cup. The winning federations of the
tournaments, and the names of their players, are recorded in the FIDE
Golden Book, of which the FIDE President has custody.

view tens of photos at
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